State Fair Memorial offers healing moment

Hundreds of people came together Monday morning at the
Indiana State Fairgrounds to mourn the lost lives and severe injuries
experienced Saturday night when the grandstand stage collapsed in high winds.

The ceremony served primarily as a memorial tribute, but
also as a medium to channel the outpouring emotion of Hoosiers from all walks
of life looking for a vehicle to share their sorrow.

"We hope this tribute will be uplifting to friends and
families who so deserve to find meaning in their sudden grief," said State
Fair Board President Steve Simmerman.

The audience shared moments of silence for each of the five
victims: Tammy Vandam, 42, of Wanatah,
Ind.; Glenn Goodrich, 49, of Indianapolis; Alina Bigjohny, 23, of Ft. Wayne; Christina Santiago, 29, of
Chicago; and Nathan Byrd, 51, of Indianapolis. An additional moment of silence
focused attention on the people still in the hospital. Of the 45 people taken
to the hospital Saturday, on Monday an estimated 19 remained.

The moment of silence offered some degree of catharsis to
Kayla Sollars of Marion, who sat in the audience with
a memorial poster of her friend Alina. Sollars was in the Sugarland audience Saturday night, but
did not find out until later that Bigjohny, who had
won her ticket to the concert, was present as well.

"I cried when the stage fell," she said. "It
was even worse to know I knew someone who was killed. I was really happy they
were able to do the moment of silence..."

Others directly touched by the tragedy left the service
telling reporters they wished the stands were cleared once officials knew the
storm was imminent.

"I just wish when the storm was coming...maybe he would have had a chance," Nate Byrd's brother
told a local TV station.

State fair employees and vendors also packed Monday's
memorial.

"They, too, are devastated," Simmerman said, noting his hope that the service
would allay some anxiety and lift some burdens as they endeavor to carry
forward.

For some employees, these personal burdens have been
compartmentalized, set off to the side of their mental landscape, while they
focus of the enormity of the task at hand.

On Saturday night, for instance, Andy Klotz, the fair's
spokesman, spent much of his evening comforting two women who were separated
from their husbands during the mayhem, uncertain as to whether they had
survived the collapse. Those stories, at least, had a happy outcome, he said.
But there's no time for reflection yet.

"It's really difficult," Klotz said. "There
are a lot of different things to consider. You have to put your own emotions on
hold because you are part of something much bigger."

The
search for answers

Most pressing now is the need for leadership, for direction,
for answers.

Indiana State Fair Executive Director Cindy Hoye [Photo by Mark Lee]

Much of that responsibility falls on ISF Executive Director
Cindy Hoye. Even when operations are running as
planned, her job during the fair is all encompassing, demanding around the
clock attention. Now she carries the weight of one of the most commonly asked
questions: What if? What if officials enacted evacuation plans sooner? Could
calamity have been prevented?

Following Monday's memorial she faced a television reporter
with weary patience as he asked the same question she'd been attempting to
answer since Saturday night, the question that will likely haunt her forever:
Why didn't you act sooner?

The accusing tone of the question is amplified as people
look to the more swift and decisive response taken earlier that evening at
Conner Prairie, where organizers of an Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
performance ordered the audience back to their cars a full half hour before
officials at the state fair suggested to the grandstand audience that an
evacuation might be necessary.

Hoye
and State Police Special Operations Commander Brad Weaver were on their way
backstage to ask audience members to evacuate the grandstand when the stage
collapsed. Cpt. Weaver pulled Hoye away from the
falling wreckage, according to several officials, including Klotz and Gov.
Mitch Daniels.

Sunday morning, Daniels joined Hoye
and other officials at a press conference to outline the basic details that had
been pieced together — a timeline and the names of the deceased.

Following Monday's service, Hoye said
that several different engineering firms were moving in for inspections of the
collapsed stage, including the Cincinnati-based company that built the stage, a
Chicago-based firm contracted by the state fair and another firm hired by the
attorney general. Additional investigating agencies include the state fire
marshal, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Marion
County coroner and the Indiana State Police.

So far, it appears that no state or local inspection
agencies were charged with evaluating the stage rigging, underscoring the need
to heighten official scrutiny of the structural integrity of temporary stages.
According to a Wall Street Journal article published Tuesday, while the state
fair accident may be the worst of its kind in history, it is at least the third
accident involving outdoor stages this summer. In July, for example, the band
Cheap Trick was nearly flattened during a stage collapse at Ottawa's Bluesfest.

Moving
forward

Monday's service also marked the ceremonial reopening of the
fair, which was closed on Sunday as officials regrouped and plotted their best
course of response.

Part of the strategy was to establish the Indiana State Fair
Remembrance Fund for the victims and their families.
More than a dozen people
remain in the hospital. Jenny Haskell, for instance, who attended the show with
Alina Bigjohny, is
suffering a skull fracture, broken ribs, a crushed pelvis and broken femur, her
friends report.

In times of tragedy, First Lady Cheri Daniels told the
memorial audience, people can either "lose heart and hope and remain in
tragedy or take heart and rebuild."

Gov. Daniels repeatedly praised both first official first
responders and private citizens for rushing to the aid of Saturday's victims.

"I can't tell you how proud I am to be the employee of
six-and-a-half million people like that," he said. "I bet you share
that pride, too."

The memorial audience responded with applause.

Now, Daniels continued, "It's time to get back to
business: The business of living. The business of the state
fair. The business of caring for each other."

And for the dozens of investigators, it is time to see what
lessons can be learned from Saturday's disaster, to determine exactly what
happened and try to make sure it never happens again.

So far, it seems, the governor is taking one central lesson
to heart.

"I thought it was a learning point for all of us, that
something of that size needs some either inspection or certification,"
Daniels told reporters gathered Tuesday for an announcement that Angie's List
will expand in Indianapolis.

"It ought to be looked at."

But the requirement for inspection or certification should
not be without qualification, he added.

"We're not going to have an inspector on every
three-foot scaffolding all over the state when (they're being) built,"
Daniels said. "So there'll have to be some rule of reason."

—
Megan Banta of the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau contributed to this report.